Floods and Crops

April was a month of cold, rain and floods.

Last week the crest of the Missouri River at St. Charles, Mo., was 36.5 ft., only one inch below the 1943 record. Road conditions in Missouri were reported "the worst in a hundred years." The Cottonwood, the Neosho, the Little Arkansas, the Chickaskia and the Osage Rivers were at alltime highs. The Mississippi burst through levees from St. Louis to Cape Girardeau, flooded a million acres. A 20-ft. wall of water cascaded over Illinois farmland when a levee crumpled. The placid Schuylkill spilled over its banks near Philadelphia. Twelve were dead, thousands homeless. Tornadoes, ripping through 14 states from South Carolina to Texas, killed 80, injured 721.

The rains helped the winter-wheat crop. Oklahoma and Kansas farmers cheerfully scanned billowy green fields. Good growing weather until June would mean a bumper harvest to spill into the nearby empty elevators. Pastures and grazing lands also thrived; from New England to the Rockies, the grass was lush.

But the rains had hurt most farmers. During most of the month, field work was at a standstill. To increase the scarce livestock feed supply, farmers had planned a record crop of oats. But less than half the oats in Illinois and Iowa, less than a third in Nebraska, had been planted.

In the South, planting was the latest in a quarter-century. Vegetables that should be well up in April were not even planted. The snap-bean crop in Georgia will be 75% below normal. Watermelons will be scarce. A more important delay was in corn and cotton planting.

At month's end the nation's overall crop prospects were not alarming. But they were bad enough to make good weather in May important.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.